Eight Hearts Intertwined
by luthien-yavetil
Summary: For the past eight months, the world has been suffering from terrorist bombings, every time asking the same question: "WHERE IS THE GAZELLE?" Of course, the Regulars have no idea. Until four mysterious girls suddenly join Seishun Gakuen, that is.
1. Apologies and Instructions

APOLOGIES

(If this is the first time you're reading this fanfic, though, please skip to INSTRUCTIONS down below)

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Uhm… Alright, here's the thing.

When I first started writing EHI, it came at the spur of the moment. I just sat down, started typing, and posted the finished chapter on fanfiction (fellow writers, DO NOT REPEAT MY MISTAKES. THEY WILL MAKE YOU SAD.). But a few days later, I started to get more and more interested in making this fanfic work, mainly because of Maya, Maddie and Ren's real life characters.

That's why I stopped posting this fanfic for a while, since I wanted to plan everything out beforehand. I didn't want the story to end up like my Ginban Kaleidescope fanfic, which I had to put on hold because I'm still thinking of how to continue the story (actually, now I have a small idea for it, but it'll still take a bit of time for the plot to become epic. Please bear with me, AYIC readers.).

So now, I'm up to planning Chapter 40something for this particular story. I'm not done yet (maybe halfway) but I figured since I'm so far, I might as well post it.

The bad news: The first few chapters were scrapped. They wouldn't work well with the plot I planned, so…

The good news: You'll actually be seeing a plot line from now on. Last time, it was just going to be a collection of fluffy chapters where this awesome girl (aka, one of my friends) will be ending up with this guy or that guy. In other words, Mary Sue chapters… NO MORE OF THAT.

From now on, the characters are going to have ISSUES. They will all have emo pasts and shall result to cutting themselves, and the regulars will try to stop them! … I'm kidding. :D (I'm also going to speak about Mary Sues in the INSTRUCTIONS part, but we can get to that later)

Well, that's basically all I can say now… Readers, I hope you forgive me for messing up with the story. You still read it the same way as you did before, though – it's still four stories combined into one plotline.

In case you've forgotten how to read this sort of fanfic (or you're just the new guy who refused to obey me at the title), here are the instructions on how to read the story from now on.

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INSTRUCTIONS

(with some introductions as well)

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_Eight Hearts Intertwined_ (EHI… heehee) isn't your average everyday fanfiction story. No, it's… actually more complicated than that. And really tiresome to make (sorry, an author needs to rant sometimes).

When you read this fanfic, you are faced with chapters that will always have one of the following five in the title:

ALL

TeKa

RxR

MoKa

KFC

What are these weird nicknames, you ask?

They are pairing nicknames (you know, Royai from FMA, TazuPete from GK, Brangelina from Hollywood – at least, I think that's the nickname).

In those pairings, the girl character will be portrayed by some sort of OC… well, not really. They were based on my friends in real life, except for Caitlyn, who is supposed to be – unfortunately – me. It's a joke we came up a looooong time ago, and strangely enough, it's still in session.

(AH! Do I hear someone say 'Mary Sue'? Well, if you don't, then you can skip down until it says 'EHI Instructions' in the center)

Okay, okay, I know most of you are thinking the same thing…

"MARY SUEEEEE " And you start throwing tomatoes and forks at me, but hear me out first!

I was researching about it in Wikipedia a few days ago (fine, just a few minutes ago – I needed it as reference to write this part). It had a subcategory, and it was this:

**Self-insertion**

"_**Self-insertion**__ is used to describe clear (and usually seen as indisputable) cases where the author has directly inserted a version of him- or herself into the story in lieu of a wholly or even partly original character, generally going so far as to use the same name or pseudonym for character and author. (_SKIPSKIPSKIP_) …"self-inserts" in fan fiction are frequently seen as the most blatant of "Mary Sues", especially when heavily idealized. Some online fan fiction archives have an outright ban on any story which involves self-insertion. They are also sometimes frowned down upon in role-playing communities, despite that some argue that it is easier for inexperienced or casual role-players to learn."_

But wait! Maya, Maddie, Ren, and Caitlyn aren't our names. Let's just say I just based Maya, Madmad, and Ren on my friends, so technically, they are now OCs! And for Caitlyn? Yeah, yeah, that's obviously a self-insertion right there. But what if Caitlyn didn't behave anything like me? HUH!? Will that work?

To tell you the truth, my argument's really weak right now – I bet you guys are seeing flaws in my defense like Swiss cheese.

So instead, I tell you angry Mary Sue-haters this: I can't say that I'm sorry for posting this. I worked really hard to make this story, and for this story, such characters are really needed. I don't blame you for not liking this kind of thing though, and it's okay for you to stop reading right here, right now, and find another story to read. Just… please don't flame my story just because of the characters. Because there's nothing I can do about it.

Right. Now that's settled…

(EHI INSTRUCTIONS)

It's important that you, the reader, will take note of those pairings. Because if you don't… then I can pretty much guarantee your brain will melt into some gooey, disgusting liquid that Inui will use for future juice mixes.

You have to dedicate yourself to reading one of these four pairings until the end of the story. And you have to read that pairing's chapters consecutively, skipping the ones without the pairing name in the chapter title, _**EXCEPT **_for the ones with 'ALL' in them. Those you have to read too.

Here, an example. Imagine the following are chapters of this story:

ALL - PoT

RxR – belongs

TeKa – to

TeKa – Konomi

RxR – Takeshi

MoKa – and

KFC – it's

RxR – actually

RxR – the

ALL – prequel

RxR – to

MoKa – SpoT

TeKa - !!!!!

For example, if you've chosen the RxR path… Then the chapters you're going to have to read consecutively are chapters:

1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 10 and 11

And nothing else.

Get it? I hope you do. :))

If I was too vague in the explanation though, please tell me through reviews or PMs. I'll do my best to correct it. It's my fault, since I shouldn't write these sorts of things at 2 AM when I have to wake up at 7 AM every morning nowadays. (WAAAAAH, SUMMER HATES MEEEE)

And one last thing! The characters here will be using foreign languages at times. Here's how to differentiate them in sentences:

"Japanese (no change)"

"English (underlined)" 

"**??? (bold)"**

Well, that's basically it. Boy, this is a long intro… But anyway…

I hope you enjoy the story, dear readers, even more than how I enjoyed writing it!

Have fun! 'Cause I sure did. xD

Now, Taka-san, if you would do the honors…

"MOZURE BAAAAARNING!!!! OKEY! STOREYAAAAAH…

STARTOOOO!"


	2. ALL Life is Fragile

_Tick… tock… tick… tock…_

Silently, resting his head on the armchair, he watched the second hand travel in its constant circle intently. Had been at it for more than an hour now, he was sure.

He had just called the airport five minutes ago, and they already assured him that the plane had landed, and passengers would soon be coming out. He needed to wait a while until they turned on their cellphones. His right hand on the armrest itched, twitching occasionally towards his own mobile – his second, not his first – on the table. Even his body was getting impatient.

He sighed and closed his eyes. Was he being paranoid? Of course not. He was being careful. Now that they were in Japan, things were going to become more complicated. And dangerous too.

He cursed fate's decisions. They were just teenage girls, freshmen, for god's sake. Such children shouldn't be involved in matters like this. Things could happen to them. Horrible things. And he should know.

He opened one of his eyes and sadly eyed the newspaper he had been reading just miuntes ago, yellowed and covered in plastic to prevent further tearing, giving an account of the fire sitting right underneath his cellphone. Now was one of the few times he could actually look at it without flinching at least once, but that was just because he made sure his phone obscured the gruesome picture. The paper was dated from almost a year ago.

It reported the incident that took his daughter's life, the fire that turned her into an almost unrecognizable charred corpse. She was just fifteen-years-old then. Almost the same age as the girls now.

He sighed, closing his eyes again as his mind became clouded with memories. Most of them were painful.

He remembered feeling irritated that day; he hadn't heard the news yet. It was late, but his daughter hadn't arrived home yet. It was unnatural, but not impossible.

He remembered entering the living room of their tiny apartment, grumbling about how stubborn that child was to leave this morning. She just informed him of her plans for today and flew out right after before he could even finish permitting them. It was just like her - once set on something, she would stick to it like Mighty-Bond and almost no one could stop her. More than once there were times she called to tell him she would be staying the night at her friend's house when he was already cruising on the highway, halfway there. She could never take no for an answer.

_Come on, daddy. It's really, really important. _Really_ important. Just this once… please? _

And almost every time, he would succumb to say yes and grudgingly turn the car around to head back home. The only times he could remember when he really put his foot down was whenever she asked to stay over at her boyfriend's house. _That _was just unacceptable.

Then the news of the fire…

Bored, he had flipped the television on, getting ready to read yesterday's paper on the couch right in front of it. Barely five minutes later, the news reported the incident.

Time seemed to stop the instant he heard his daughter's name being uttered by the indifferent anchor newswoman. For a moment, he couldn't believe it – thought it was all just a joke.

Then she started to report on the details. He turned off the TV right after, refusing to look at the screen. He'd heard enough. He didn't want to have to see Emily's corpse as well.

"God…" he muttered to himself, back in the present, taking off his glasses with his left hand as if that would help clear his mind more.

_Emily… _

Why exactly did God decide to take her away that day?

She hadn't done anything in her life to deserve death. She was kind, honest, and _usually_ obedient (those times she wasn't, well, those things could always be overlooked easily). And in the times he refused to let her stay over at Pete's house, she never took it badly. She understood what her father's intentions were. And instead of pouting or acting like a brat like most kids would those days, she would point at the window and suggest stopping for ice cream at their favorite ice cream parlor on their way back home, if it wasn't too late.

_Well, dad? Yes? Great! I'm getting three scoops on my cone this time, riiight? … No, I'm not picking a fight here… Fine, maybe I am, but still…! _

He started to chuckle, but it came out humorlessly and quickly faded away.

_God, are you even listening to me? _

… No answer. Not that he expected one, anyway.

Silence for a few more moments. Then he placed his glasses back on and glanced at the clock again.

Ten minutes had passed. If their cellphones weren't on by now, they definitely were going to get a scolding.

He leaned forward, reaching for the phone. Then, his hand barely inches away from it, it started to ring. Startled, he pulled back for a moment, and then chuckled sincerely this time, amused. Seems like they got to him first.

He pressed the phone to his ear.  
"Hello?"

He spoke in Japanese. They were in the country after all. When in Japan, speak the language. Or do as the Japanese do. Whatever the saying was.

"S-Sensei? We have to call you sensei now, right?"

One of the girls. What was her name now? Cross… Cross Caitlyn. Caitlyn the first name, of course.  
"Hai. Where are you?"  
"Near the entrance. Arranging a taxi. Trying to get a good discount."  
"Don't go crazy," he warned. "Japan's different from your native country."

"Don't worry about it… Ah, they're loading the trunk with our luggage now. Just a second…"

Her voice was momentarily muffled, her hand probably shielding the receiver, as she shared a few words with someone else.

"Sorry," she apologized upon her return. She yawned, the sound coming in loudly through the earpiece. "I can't wait to take a nap… We all can't. It's six in the morning and we barely got any sleep on the plane…"

"I'm afraid that will have to wait," he told her lightly, getting up himself. "And it's seven o' clock in this time zone, by the way. How long will it take you four to reach the apartment?"  
More muffled voices again then Caitlyn returned.

"Forty, fifty minutes?"  
"That's a long time," he commented, standing up, eyes avoiding the newspaper on the table, and exiting the room into the main hallway. "Tell him to wait outside the apartment after you get there."

"What…?" She sounded cautious now. She knew he was up to something.

"It would be easier to ride to school than walk since you're all so sleepy, wouldn't it?"

"_What!?"_

"Tell the others for me too, would you?"

Her voice became slightly distorted, but he could still understand every word that followed. She wasn't speaking close to the phone anymore, but she wasn't covering it either. Outraged, she notified the others of everything her sensei told her.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" hissed a new voice in the earpiece, another one of the girls. Her name was…. Tana… da? Tanaka Ren. That's it.

"There are a few things you need to do there," he replied, pressing the phone against his ear with his shoulder as he redone his tie, stopping right before the front door of his apartment. "For one, you need to pick up your new uniforms. Second, you can get to know the school. Familiarize yourselves with your surroundings. Know so much that it's like you've been there all your lives. Third, lastly, you all need to fill up the last of the paperwork… I took care of most of it, so there's no problem there."  
"Couldn't you've done all of it for us, then?" Ren grumbled.

The phone at the other side was switched to someone else.

"Hello? Sensei?"

Her name he remembered. Kotobuki Madeline. Maddie, for short.

"Do we really have to go?" she asked weakly. "Maya's already asleep in the taxi."

He frowned. Now he was losing his patience.

"Then wake her up. When you get to the apartment, leave your suitcases inside, get out, and go to Seishun Gakuen… For god's sake, put me on loudspeaker…! Did you wake her now…?"

He heard the slamming of a door, and then the sound of someone yelping, startled, as the car's engine reared to life.

He started to continue. But this time, he spoke to the girls in their native language – not English, although they lived at least six years of their lives there – but the language of the country they lived in before their families migrated to America for similar reasons. He did this partly because he didn't want the driver to understand what he was going to say on loudspeaker, the other because he wanted to make sure what came next made a significant impact on these girls.

"**Listen to what I am saying," **he barked.** "You're all not here on some sort of a vacation. You are only here because **_**I **_**can protect you. But I alone can't handle you four, so shoulder some of the responsibility for once, all of you! You're teenagers already! Take this seriously…"** His voice deepened, his mind starting to cloud again.

_Emily… _

"**If you don't, then I might not be able to save you. If you don't, the enemy will find you, capture you, and, in best case scenario, torture you in case you know something. Worst case scenario… If you don't, you will die." **

Silence.

He heard a crackle as he was taken off loudspeaker.

"Well, we sure are awake now, sensei," came Caitlyn's tentative voice.

He opened the front door and exited, almost rolling his eyes yet a small smile crept onto his lips.

"Are you all thinking sensibly now too?"  
"Yeah. You're really harsh sometimes, sensei. Everyone else's silent, and-"

A voice spoke in the background, male and not understandable. Caitlyn's voice became muffled again, but by what he could hear, she was telling the driver the address of the apartment she will share with the other three.

"And they're looking at anything in the car except me. It's all your fault."

Caitlyn breathed out deeply, pausing before saying, "Well…"

What's this? A question coming up?

"Are we going to see you later at school then, sensei?"

His smile got just a slightly bit wider. She had asked curiously, innocently. But she knew the answer already, of course.

"Let's just hope you'll be in my class," he replied, shutting the door behind him, testing the door handle once to make sure it was locked, then headed down the hallway, ready to head to work.


	3. ALL First Day and Losing It

Tanaka Ren hated being sleepy. She always had. That's why whenever she felt drowsy, she would head to the nearest bed and nap, regardless of the time. Hell, if it was only 4 PM and she was already yawning, she'd automatically start marching to her bedroom, already thinking of soft pillows and warm blankets awaiting her.

So she wasn't in the most chipper of moods that particular weekday morning, forced to enter their new school and do their sensei's bidding. The plane trip had been excruciating; none of them had taken a wink of sleep thanks to the old lady sitting in front of them. Who knew an old bag like her could snore like a bulldozer the whole eighteen hours?

Still, even though she hated being awake right now, she couldn't bring herself to despise the guy giving them orders.

_**If you don't, then I might not be able to save you. If you don't, the enemy will find you, capture you, and, in best case scenario, torture you in case you know something. Worst case scenario… If you don't, you will die. **_

He was right, of course. He wasn't superman. They all knew that. And he had his own problems too, and should be dealing with them right now instead of theirs.

Besides, back in the taxi, they all suddenly realized they couldn't just sit back and make him do all the work like some sort of servant. It was their fault they were in this mess. And it was their responsibility to get themselves through it.

Seishun Gakuen looks pretty different from schools in America, Ren thought upon entering the high school. Then she yawned again and the thought disappeared. Man, she really wanted a bed now.

"Where is everyone?" asked Maya, looking around, puzzled.

"Dunno," Ren replied, shrugging.

Yamada Maya was pretty much Ren's oldest friend, had been ever since they had that argument in third grade that caused chaos in the whole batch with the two of them practically gnawing each other's arms off. They've been inseparable ever since.

"Classes are probably still in session," Maddie pointed out.

"Good. Or students'll probably start staring at us zombies in the hallway," Caitlyn commented, rubbing her eyes with closed fists.

Kotobuki Maddie and Cross Caitlyn weren't that old of friends like Maya, but they still two of the most irreplaceable people Ren had ever met. They were part of the few who were willing to deal with her attitude – who didn't mind it at all, really. And that was already a feat amazing on its own.

Actually, these three were the one of the few things Ren was grateful for in her kind of position. Even if she had to pick who'd be with her in their hellhole of a situation, she'd definitely stick with the same people. And if the situation had called for only her to be in trouble, well, she'd still find away to get the other three to come with her. Even if they didn't want to. That's just how much they meant to her.

Doing their best to not fall to the ground and start snoozing, they started looking for the administration office. They didn't bother much with sensei's second order – they had enough time in the following days to memorize every single square inch of Seigaku. But they did need to finish orders one and three – getting their uniforms and finalizing the paperwork – today, whether they liked it or not. Which they didn't.

"_Where_ is it?" Maddie sighed exasperatedly, leaning on a hallway wall after they decided to take a break.

They've been walking around for the past twenty minutes inside the pale blue walled hallways of Seigaku and they still haven't been able to locate the office. One of the disadvantages of walking around school property during classes was that there's no one lurking around in the hallways to ask directions from.

"Ah!" Caitlyn suddenly exclaimed, for the first time this morning opening her drowsy eyes. She gave herself a small slap on her temple with her wrist.

"What is it?" Ren grumbled, her interest perking slightly.

"This," Caitlyn groaned, whipping out her cellphone from her pocket.

Ren proceeded to give Caitlyn's temple a whack of her own.  
"Caitstler…" Maya said darkly as the other girl struggled to not get knocked down. "Why didn't you think of this earlier?"  
"Sorry…" Caitlyn apologized and smiled a bit sheepishly, straightening up. She pressed the cellphone out of lock mode. "You know how out of it I can get in the morning."

"Buy me Chokoko later to make up for it."  
"In your dreams, Ren."  
As Ren scowled, Caitlyn first tried to contact sensei on loudspeaker. But after about three rings, it stopped.

"He cancelled the call," Caitlyn sighed. "Must be in the middle of one of his classes…"  
Ren muttered to herself, a hand on her hip as she glanced up and down the hallway as if someone would magically pop up to help them out. "Back to our first option…"

"I'll leave him a message and tell him we're here." Caitlyn started prodding buttons, the device beeping softly at each input.

Ren was suddenly struck by an idea.  
"Hey," she remarked. She faced her friends. "Let's split up. It'll make looking for that office much easier, I'm sure."

"Don't we all need to fill out individual forms?" Maddie asked, raising an eyebrow.

Good question.

"We could meet up again outside in ten minutes then," Ren decided. "In case one of us found the place before the others. We'll pretty much be saving thirty minutes of search time this way."

Maya nodded. "That's pretty good, ja. Nice, Ren."  
She smirked then shrugged in a way lacking modesty. "Right. Well then, see you guys later."

"See you."

"Don't get lost."  
"Say that to Caitlyn."  
"That's it. Definitely no more Chokoko for Ren."

Damn.

He was signing documents over the wooden teacher's desk the school provided in every classroom. Actually, they happened to be about Maya, Ren, Maddie and Caitlyn's enrollment – the paperwork he, as their temporary guardian, had to sign.

For a moment, he worried that the school might not accept the papers and the whole thing will end prematurely with his arrest. Then the feeling quickly disappeared. They had no reason to be suspicious. His and their tracks had expertly been covered by a person he'd trust his life with.

"…sensei…? Sensei!"  
He looked up. One of his students of this particular first year class (Class one, perhaps? It was difficult to keep track – he taught every Science Lab class in all the three years) was standing hesitantly in front of his desk, her shoulders tensed, arms straight, and hands clasped together as she nervously twiddled her thumbs.

Cure paused to try to remember her name. She was the granddaughter of one of his co-workers, right? And from what he could remember, they shared the first letter in their first names… Ah. There it is. Ryuzaki Sakuno.

"Ryuzaki-san, what is it?" he questioned calmly. He raised a hand to overturn the paperwork and hide what was written from her eyes, but decided he didn't really need to. What was written was supposed to be the 'truth', anyway.

"Anou… Uhm…" she mumbled so softly that he had to strain his ears to hear her properly. "There's a problem with our experiment…" She glanced back at her group's worktable, which he concluded was the one in the very back with a number of equally nervous students looking back at them.

"What is it?" he repeated with a frown, forcing the student's attention back to him. "Tell me."  
Now she started to look frightened. "T-The experiment…"  
"You said that already," he told her. "I meant, can you tell me what went wrong?"

He wasn't even sure how her group made a mistake with the experiment. It was so simple to perform. The goal was to inflate a balloon attached to a water bottle by dunking it into a bucket of hot water, then deflate it by putting it in a bottle of cold water (and the explanation was equally simple: heat makes air molecules speed up and spread out, while coldness causes them to compact).

"I think our balloon has a hole…"

"You should've said so in the first place. If you were listening at the beginning of the class, I said that I gave the class representative extras to distribute to groups with faulty balloons."  
"O-Oh." Ryuzaki's face flushed. She bowed, perhaps to hide her face, or maybe she just didn't want to look at his pissed face any longer. "A-Arigatou gozaimasu." She quickly escaped to the class rep, her ridiculously long braids flapping in the air behind her.  
He sighed. Suddenly, he felt something in his pocket vibrating. His cell again. Calls were prohibited during class hours so he quickly denied the call.

Then, with that over, he started to survey how the rest of the class was doing. There didn't seem to be much problem, except… That student – Horio, was it? – was lazing off and bothering other groups by bragging about his 'two years tennis experience', but, even though he never seen him or the tennis club practicing, he doubted it made him much different from a beginner.

He frowned, halfway up from his chair and ready to walk over and tell the boy to get back to work. Then he saw that the rest of his group was pretty much doing the same thing, although being much, much quieter. The equipment given to the group was already packed neatly inside its tray at the center of the table. Were they finished with their project already?

Then he spotted the reason why. Ah. He was groupmates with Echizen Ryoma, one of the best students in his class. He was also the infamous first year regular that the whole faculty had been buzzing about for a week one time. Echizen's name was one of the few student he could actually remember instantly because of that. But maybe the boy did deserve the fame. He was extremely talented at the sport, he heard.

Yet, he couldn't see the prodigy's face. All he could see was his greenish opal hair. Because the boy was burying his face on his arms over his desk, probably planning to spend the rest of the class sleeping.

Sleeping. That made him remember the girls again, and he realized that they have probably already reached the school. His pocket vibrated again, this time for only two seconds, representing the arrival of a text message. Opening his inbox underneath his desk confirmed his suspicions. He kept the phone again. Apparently, they were also lost inside the premises.

That was natural, he supposed. The administration office was located at the other side of the school, almost at the opposite side of the building from the main entrance.

He glanced at the papers on his desk. They were already completed and had to be submitted, preferably by today. He glanced at the clock. Class was ending in ten minutes.


End file.
